The Trip to Goldenrod
by Bad Luck Novelist
Summary: First part of the Trainer's Heart Series. There are confessions abound, and a trip into Johto to bring it all together....
1. The Morning

Ages: 13-Ash, 13-May, 13-Gary, 13-Anne, 14-Misty  
  
- 1 - It was a typical day in Pallet Town, in the Ketchum residence. Ash was on his regular schedule of brushing Pikachu after breakfast. Misty was getting ready to head back to Cerulean City, so she was getting her things together, taking a shower, ect. Brock had left to Pewter City to help with his little brothers and sisters and Mrs. Ketchum was god only knows were.  
  
"Ring, ring! Phone call! Phone call!" rang the videophone.  
  
Ash put down the comb (so Pikachu went upstairs for a nap) and walked  
  
over to the phone. "Hello?" Ash asked. He turned the screen on. A girl of his age with long brown hair, black eyes, and a sweet voice answered.  
  
"Hi Ash!" she said happily. He knew at once who she was: May Oak, Prof. Oak's granddaughter.  
  
"H-h-hi May," Ash stuttered, secretly he had a little crush on her, "How you d-d-doing?"  
  
"Wonderful, thank you. Is it all right if I come over?" she asked. Before he could reply she looked to the right, sighed, looked back at the screen, then said," Hold that thought a moment. Mom has this black dress on that zips in the back and her hair got caught in it. I'll be back in a minute." She sulked away.  
  
A Pikachu suddenly appeared on the screen. Ash just smiled slightly, just noticing the pink bow on its head. "Hullo. I guess your May's Pikachu?" he  
  
asked.  
  
With a small nod it just replied with a "Pika," and then it started blabbering on and on about something. 'Does her Pikachu ever shut up?' Ash thought miserably.  
  
After a minute of listening to the Pikachu talk about something (he couldn't understand it), May came back. The Pikachu just looked at her, waved good- bye to Ash, and ran off. May shook her head laughing, then said, "That had to be the most boring conversation, I bet?"  
  
"YES AND THANK YOU FOR COMING BACK! I didn't even know what it was saying!" Ash yelled.  
  
"Thought so," May mumbled, "So? Can I come over?"  
  
"Yeah. Oh, hi Misty," he said.  
  
"I'm May, remember?" she snapped.  
  
"Misty just came downstairs. I said hi to her," he muttered.  
  
"O.k. OUCH! RAICHU! WHAT WAS THAT FOR, YOU IDIOT!? I'll be over there in a moment!" May practically screamed.  
  
"O.k." he said. May hung up.  
  
It took five minutes for May to get over there. When she got in the house, she almost fell onto the couch next to Ash. "Stupid Raichu. It bit me. After I got mom's hair out of the zipper and zipped it shut, she started walking around  
  
putting her make-up on and stuff, she walked over to the mirror next to the phone and Raichu was standing next to me and she just had to step on it's tail. In pain and shock it bit my hand," May grumbled, showing them her hand, which was bandaged.  
  
"Hope you didn't get hurt to badly," Ash muttered, just low enough so only May could hear him. She smiled, then shook her head.  
  
"No, no, I'm alright...that Raichu isn't though," May replied in a just as low voice, then speaking louder so Misty would hear said, "That Raichu had a nice time with Pikachu!"  
  
"What happened?" Misty asked interestedly. Ash and Misty both looked at her, waiting to hear about what happened. She just laughed then looked back at them.  
  
"Well, Pikachu ran into the room because of hearing me yell at Raichu. It saw that it bit me and used Thunder Shock on Raichu. Raichu tried to attack back, but all it did was hit it's self and it fainted!" she said. They all burst out laughing. After they all had stopped laughing she just shook her head and sighed.  
  
"I have four pokemon in my group and that Raichu has to be the weakest of them all," she moaned. Seeing their confused faces she quickly said," I'm not a pokemon trainer, but I asked Grandpa, you know, Prof. Oak, if I could capture some pokemon and keep them as pets, and he said yes. He gave me a poke dex, so I could see what kinds of pokemon there are and all I got are four."  
  
"What are they?" Ash asked.  
  
"Let's see, I have Pikachu, nicknamed Penny. Then there's Raichu, nicknamed Minny. I also have a Charmander; Grandpa gave it to me for my birthday, nicknamed Charna. Then there's Ponyta, nicknamed Red-flame. I'm interested in the electric and fire types. I want to get Moltres or a Vulpix or a Flareon or a Growlithe for a third fire type, and for a third electric type I want to get a Jolteon or a Pichu. If I can't get two different ones, one from each, I'm going to get a Dratini and Butterfree or a Butterfree and Eevee." she replied softly.  
  
"You really know what you want May, do you know when your going to get them?" Misty piped up.  
  
"No. All I know is that I might be getting a Pichu in a few weeks though," May said, taking off the bandages from her hand.  
  
"How do you know? Oh...it looks like you were bleeding from Raichu biting you," Ash said looking at her now unbandaged hand. She looked at him and then took a poke' ball from her pocket and let a Pikachu out.  
  
"I was bleeding for a few minutes after the little incident if you wanted to know. Also I know I might be getting a Pichu because in a few weeks Mom, Dad, Gary, and me are taking a trip to Goldenrod City in Johto," she stated plainly. The Pikachu (Penny) squealed in delight at the mention of the trip.  
  
Ash's Pikachu crept down the stairs to see what he was doing. It whimpered at the sight of Penny and tried to run back up the staircase. It was too late, penny ran up to Pikachu and got in front of it. "Pi Pikachu! \Hi Pikachu!" she squealed.  
  
"Err, Ash? Is your Pikachu a male or female?" May asked.  
  
Ash shrugged. "Not sure. By the look of it, it must be male," he replied, "Because I'm positive yours is female! Why else would you put a pink bow on it?!" 'How stupid am I!? I didn't even know what my Pikachu was!' he thought.  
  
They just stared at the Pikachus. May whistled and Penny looked down  
  
the stairs. She hopped down the stairs and jumped onto her owner's lap. May scratched Penny's ears a bit then said, "I'm starting to train Penny, Charna, Red-flame, and somehow Minny to come if I whistle. After that, I'm going to train them to do one of their attacks when I snap my fingers, or clap, or whatever. If I ever have to battle, the opponent won't know what my pokemon are going to do...plus they'll think I'm nuts," she said proudly. Penny hopped off May, and sat down on Ash.  
  
"I wouldn't," Ash muttered, then thought, 'I am soooo going to end up blurting it out...'  
  
Penny jumped off Ash and curled up between him and May to take a pika  
  
nap.  
  
"Ash, look at Pikachu," Misty whispered. He looked at Pikachu to see it teetering on the edge of one of the stairs, staring at him with a look that said, "I think I know some thing you don't want anyone to know." Ash sighed then called it over there.  
  
It slumped over to him and climbed onto the couch. "What is it?" Ash  
  
asked softly.  
  
"Ash, I think you like her," Pikachu mumbled pointing at May. He looked at Pikachu, then May, then back at Pikachu.  
  
"What did it say?" May asked curiously.  
  
"'Think! Think!' Err, Pikachu said, err, your pretty," he lied. May shook her head.  
  
"That's a lie and you know it!" she said.  
  
"I don't want to tell you what Pikachu said...it's a secret," he mumbled. He was blushing a little.  
  
"You should have just said that in the first place!" she said. Penny stirred awake and looked to see what was happening.  
  
"Want to know how I know that, Ash?" Pikachu ask sadly.  
  
"Later," he muttered. He looked up and jumped. May's brother, Gary, was standing there. Gary was as pale as death, he muttered a quick hello and asked Ash to come in the kitchen.  
  
Ash looked at May, who shrugged, so he stood up and walked in the kitchen. 


	2. Help

- 2 -  
  
"What is it?" Ash asked the minute he stepped in the kitchen. Gary breathed in deep then out.  
  
"Ash, you're going to have to help May for a while," he muttered gravely.  
  
"Why? What's the matter with her?" Ash asked horrified.  
  
"May has always idolized our mother. Wants to grow up to be like her, a lawyer, but now mom has this little drinking problem. No one could ever think of her as having one. I guess she's depressed about some thing. Well, when I tell May she's going to be heart-broken." Gary said sadly. Ash was puzzled. What could he do? Say he's there for her if she needs him?  
  
"What can I do?" Ash asked. Gary suddenly smiled.  
  
"Tell her you like her," he said. Ash gaped at him. How did he know  
  
about that?  
  
"How in the world-"  
  
"Did I find out? Easy. You were stuttering when you talked to May on the phone." Gary said, "If you don't like her, why would you stutter?"  
  
"'Oh, that's nice...everybody is finding out that I like her!' Good point. Um..." Ash was lost for words.  
  
"Let's go tell May."  
  
"Yeah.alright."  
  
When back in the Living Room, Ash sat down next to May, Penny back on  
  
her lap. Gary was still very pale in the face.  
  
"May, I've got to tell you something about mom," Gary said. May looked up at him.  
  
"What?" she asked.  
  
"Mom has a drinking problem, May," he said. Misty shuddered. Ash looked at May, who was looking at the floor.  
  
"How..." May was speechless. Ash noticed she looked like she was going to cry. Penny jumped off her lap and joined Ash's Pikachu in the corner of the room.  
  
Just then May burst out crying. He looked at Gary who shrugged, then to Misty, who was biting her bottom lip.  
  
Ash took May into a hug and started rocking her back and forth, softly whispering that it would be all right. "It's alright, May, you can help you mom and she'll be back to normal," he breathed, 'What am I doing?! Why do I keep acting totally obvious!?"'  
  
After a few minutes she had stopped crying and looked up at Gary. "When did you find that out?" she said quietly. Gary looked shocked at that question and nodded towards Penny, who was pacing by the stairs now. "Penny? What's Penny got to do with it?" she asked.  
  
"She told me. This morning."  
  
"When?"  
  
"Before you left. She looked proud of herself, about beating that Raichu."  
  
"Penny, what did you tell him this morning?" she asked, a bit harder then she meant to. Penny looked at Gary, then Ash and Misty, then May.  
  
"Pika pika, pik, pi...\your mom, and, er..." Penny dropped her gaze and looked at the wall.  
  
"And?" The small pokemon's ears drooped slightly; it looked sad and depressed about it.  
  
"I sorta told him you like Ash...I'm sorry!" it mumbled. May looked deep in thought. Ash was about to say something when Misty stood up. She quickly said that she was going to go back up stairs and hurried up the steps  
  
Ash just looked at May. "I've got a job for you Penny." she said, "Go back to the house, in my bedroom there are three poke' balls on my desk. Get them. Bring them back here. Got that?" Penny made a small "Pika \Yes" and went to the door. May stood up, walked to the door, and opened it. Penny ran out the door, back to her house.  
  
"Er, May? What about your Mom?" Ash asked. May sat back down on the couch and thought about that. She looked at him and smiled.  
  
"Well, you had a point. She can be helped...but how? How does a thirteen year old help a thirty-three year old woman with this?" she asked. Ash looked at Gary, who was whistling to himself.  
  
"Well, ask your dad to help. Does he know?" he suggested. Gary shook his head.  
  
"I guess I should tell him," Gary stated. May nodded in agreement.  
  
"The sooner, the better," she said, rather loudly. Gary went to the door and opened it. Penny was back. It hurried over to the couch and dropped three poke' balls on the floor. "Thank you Penny." She picked them up.  
  
"I'll go to Dad now. See ya,"  
  
"'Bye," they both said. Ash looked at the poke' balls.  
  
"Why'd you have Penny bring them here?" She grinned.  
  
"To show you my pokemon!" she said," Come out Minny." A Raichu appeared in front of them. It had two red bows, one on the tip of each ear. It looked flustered. It just looked around, trying to figure out were it was.  
  
"That's Minny." she sighed. It looked at her, confused.  
  
"Rai rai chu? \What's this place?" it asked.  
  
"It's Ash's house, Minny," she said.  
  
"Rai, \Oh," Minny replied. Minny started walking around, looking at everything.  
  
"Come out Charna," A Charmander came out of one of the poke' balls. Like Ash suspected, it too, had a bow around its neck, a reddish-orange one.  
  
"Char. \Hello." It looked at Ash, curiously. "I'd let Red-flame out, but it's not a very good idea, being in the house." she remarked.  
  
Minny walked over to the couch and jumped up on it. It looked at Ash. "Rai. \Hi." it said.  
  
"Er, hi," he replied. Minny nodded. "Your Raichu is weird," Ash said to May in an under tone.  
  
"Well, duh!" she said back, "Minny. Charna. Return." They disappeared into the poke' balls.  
  
"How can you stay so calm about every thing? Especially your mom..." he asked.  
  
"I can keep my mind off things, even if it was just said or done." May said.  
  
Penny looked up from the floor and looked at Ash's Pikachu, who was now walking around the room. They stared at Penny, who kept a close watch on pikachu. "Is it just me or does Penny look like she likes your pikachu?" Ash shook his head.  
  
"Not you."  
  
"Penny, return." After it was returned, May tossed the poke' balls on the table.  
  
"Want to see Ponyta?"  
  
"Yeah." Outside May sent out the Ponyta. It whinnied and pawed the ground.  
  
"Easy, boy, easy." It whinnied again, but settled down.  
  
"Does it always do that?" Ash asked. May shook her head. Ponyta whinnied and reared onto its hind legs, pawing the air. "HELP!" Ash screamed, purposely falling backwards, to keep from being hit by Ponyta.  
  
"Return, Ponyta!" It got into the poke' ball. Ash stood up and brushed off. May was looking at something behind him. Suddenly she screamed, "ASH! LOOK BEHIND YOU!" Curiously, he looked over his shoulder, to see Articuno.  
  
"Never thought I'd see him again." Articuno got ready to use Ice Beam.  
  
"RUN!" May yelled. The two ran into the house and slammed the door shut.  
  
"Ash, give me Charizard."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Just do it!"  
  
"Alright! Here's Charizard." She pried the door open.  
  
"Go! Charizard!"  
  
"You listen to her!" Ash barked at Charizard, who just showed up.  
  
"Char. \Fine." 


	3. Fights and Confessions

- 3 -  
  
  
  
"Use fire spin!" May ordered. It used it. The Articuno wavered left and right, ready to fall.  
  
"Go Penny!" After Penny came out she used thunder automatically. The Articuno had took enough, it fainted.  
  
"Good job of that Articuno. You gonna catch it?" a boy asked. He walked up and looked at it.  
  
"No. I don't want it," she said.  
  
"I'll catch it then," he said.  
  
"No way!" May yelled. He looked up.  
  
"Who made you queen of the world?" he asked sarcastically.  
  
"No one. I'm not letting anyone catch it!" she said sternly.  
  
"You are such a idiot, did you know that? If you weren't such a pathetic excuse for a human I'd be insulted. Here's a tip for ya: You catch pokemon! Got that?" Ash balled up his fist in fury.  
  
"Sure, whatever. This is one time that isn't happening, though." May said hotly.  
  
"Shut up, you...you...you idiot! You are just a stupid. Little. Girl!" he yelled. Ash snapped. He walked up to the boy and punched him. He stumbled back, surprised by Ash's action. When he recovered he walked up to Ash and glared at him.  
  
"What was that for, kid?" he asked.  
  
"Would you shut up and leave her alone?!" Ash yelled.  
  
"No, and you know what kid? You just made the biggest mistake of your small life!" he yelled. He punched Ash back. He fell to the ground, but got right back up. He punched the boy in the jaw, again. May stood, watching the two of them, paralyzed in fear.  
  
That strange boy looked at Ash, not knowing what to do. Ash kept his eyes on him, making sure to be ready for whatever would happen. Both of them looked at each other for a few seconds before any one did any thing else.  
  
Ash got a hard blow in the stomach. He doubled over, groaning in pain. May stifled a small cry. It went on somewhat like that until...  
  
"What is going on here?!" Mrs. Ketchum had returned. The boy said, "This kid started it, and that's the truth!"  
  
"No. I. Didn't." Ash said, "That's. A. Lie!"  
  
He tried to stand up straight, but didn't get too far in succeeding. May ran over and helped him to get straight in standing, him still in pain from the hit.  
  
"I don't want to know who started it. I want to know why it was started," she said. The boy looked at Ash.  
  
"Seeya, kid! You tell her! You started it!" the boy bolted. Mrs. Ketchum was frowning slightly. "Come on, let's get you in the house..." She shepherded May and Ash into the house. Right when they were in the house and the door was shut, May started telling Mrs. Ketchum what had happened. Mrs. Ketchum smiled.  
  
"Well! It looks like Ash here finally stood up for someone. in particular" Ash looked at her.  
  
"MOM!" he yelled.  
  
"Didn't say anything!" she said walking into the kitchen. They looked at each other.  
  
"HI!" someone yelled. They looked to their left. A girl of the age of 13 with black hair was standing there.  
  
"Hi, Anne," mumbled May. Ash looked at May, then Anne.  
  
"Who is she?" Ash asked. He still looked like he was in pain, but not as much.  
  
"Her cousin," the girl answered. May went and sat down on the couch  
  
"What do you want, Anne?" May asked. Ash went and sat down next to  
  
May, but still looking at Anne.  
  
"Nothing!" she yelled. Then she, for some reason that no one will ever know, blurted out, "Do you like each other?" They stared at her.  
  
"Now why would you ask that?" May asked. Anne shrugged.  
  
"Dunno, just did. Because it looks like you do..." she said. Ash shifted uncomfortably. He didn't want to answer that. May said something, but not too clearly. They looked at her confused.  
  
"I said that...that...I..." She looked clearly as uncomfortable with this question as Ash felt. May screwed up all of her courage and said loudly, "I LIKE HIM!" Anne went wide-eyed.  
  
"Ooookeeeey...what's your name?" Anne turned to Ash.  
  
"My name is Ashton Satoshi Ketchum." he responded, "Every one calls me 'Ash,' though."  
  
"Okay, Ash, what's your answer to my first question?" she asked. He knew that was coming.  
  
"Well, I...um..."He couldn't answer.  
  
"Well?" Anne demanded.  
  
"Is this important to you?!" Ash asked roughly. Anne nodded. He sighed deeply. "Fine! I'll tell you..." he said, "...I like her..." Anne smirked.  
  
"Now how rare is this, eh? Two people who like each other and they didn't even know it!" Anne yelled. May frowned slightly.  
  
"What's this to you?" she asked.  
  
"Dunno, just wanted to know..." Anne shrugged. May looked ready to kill her. Anne snapped her fingers.  
  
"I know! Why don't you two just kiss or something?" Anne suggested.  
  
"What?" they yelled.  
  
"Huh? What? You don't know what kissing is?" Anne asked.  
  
"We know what it is!"  
  
"So? What's the problem? Anne asked.  
  
"We. Are. Thirteen, Anne!" May yelled.  
  
"So? Why do you care if you're thirteen or twenty-five? I'll bet a Pikachu that you want to!"  
  
"Will you please shut up?" Ash groaned.  
  
"No, not unless you kiss her!" Anne yelled. Ash sighed. He then, to his surprise, kissed May. Anne and May were both shocked.  
  
After the shock wore off (10 seconds), May didn't seem to mind. Anne smirked at Pikachu, who was sitting at her feet. "It worked..." she whispered.  
  
"What worked?" Anne pointed to the two of them. Pikachu pulled a face in disgust. "Yuck! Mushy stuff!"  
  
Anne was getting annoyed. It been five minutes and the two still hadn't broken apart yet. "Pikachu? Can you do me a favor?" Anne whispered.  
  
"Maybe."  
  
"Thunder shock them, okay? I'm thinking they're holding this long to annoy me..."  
  
"Right. I want it to stop!" It started to get ready to use thunder shock. Finally, the two of them broke apart. Ash looked at Pikachu.  
  
"Don't you dare thunder shock us!" he yelled. Pikachu stopped.  
  
"She asked me to do it!" Ash looked at Anne.  
  
"You asked Pikachu to thunder shock us?" Ash asked. Anne nodded.  
  
"I...er...better get going!" Anne yelled, "Bye!" She left quickly.  
  
May shook her head. "Weird." she muttered. Ash looked at her.  
  
"What's weird?"  
  
"What Anne just did.and what YOU just did."  
  
"Oh," Ash said, going bright red. 


	4. The Meeting

- 4 -  
  
"I've got to get going, too. I just remembered...there's something I want to do..."May said. They stood up.  
  
"O.k. Guess I see you some other time," Ash said.  
  
"Yep...like tomorrow," she said.  
  
"'Bye," Ash said, "I...I love you, May."  
  
"'Bye, and."May said, hugging him, then saying right into his ear, "I love you, too." She gave him a quick kiss and another hug before she left. After she had gone, he called to his mom that he was going to his room then rushed up.  
  
Ash awoke at 6:30 a.m. (to his great disapproval), so he got dressed and was down stairs, ready to go for a walk. Before he touched the doorknob, the phone rang. He walked over and answered it.  
  
'Now who in the world would call at this time in the morning?' "Hello?" he said.  
  
"Hi, it's May!" she answered.  
  
"May I ask why you called at 6:30 in the morning?" he asked.  
  
"No. Meet me at the pokemon center at 7:00, ok?" she asked.  
  
"Sure,"  
  
"See ya in'a bit then."  
  
"'Bye."  
  
"'Bye" After she hung up, he left for his walk.  
  
When he got to the center at 7:00, May was nowhere to be seen. This was odd because she was never late for anything. Ash looked around a bit. She was nowhere.  
  
May walked in the door and snuck up behind him. She hugged him.  
  
"Hi, May," he said.  
  
"Hi." she said, "Come over here." He grabbed hold of her hand before she started running over to one of the tables. Gary and a man Ash had never seen in his life were sitting on one side of the table.  
  
"That's Dad," she said, seeing that Ash had no clue to who he was. They sat down on the side across from Gary and Mr. Oak. Mr. Oak looked a lot like Gary, Ash noticed. Gary was the first to start talking.  
  
"I told Dad about Mom, and he thinks he has a idea."  
  
"What's the idea, Mr. Oak?" Ash asked.  
  
"I have a friend that can do, er, charms that can get rid of or heal any problem or sickness and then some." Mr. Oak replied.  
  
"Where's he live, Dad?" May asked. She put her head on Ash's shoulder, and he put his arms around her. Mr. Oak sighed deeply.  
  
"Goldenrod City," he said.  
  
"What?!" all three teenagers yelled.  
  
"You won't see him until your trip...in how many weeks?" Ash said softly.  
  
"Two," May answered.  
  
"I know," Mr. Oak replied, "but we can use these two weeks to convince her to go to him."  
  
"That'll be hard. She can be pretty stubborn about things." May said sadly.  
  
"I'm sure I can," Mr. Oak said smugly.  
  
"Yeah, sure Dad," May and Gary said together.  
  
"How you getting there? To Goldenrod?" Ash asked.  
  
"Air plane," Gary answered.  
  
"Dad suggested we take an air plane to Saffron, then take the Magnet Train to Goldenrod...but Mom stamped that out. She said its faster to just take a plane to Goldenrod." May said.  
  
"It'd be nice to see Goldenrod again..." Ash said.  
  
"You've been to Goldenrod before?" Mr. Oak asked.  
  
"Yeah. On my pokemon training journey." he stated. Mr. Oak looked at his wristwatch and almost died.  
  
"I'm late for work!" Mr. Oak yelled. He stood up and ran out the door. May picked her head up and frowned.  
  
"He's always late for work these days..." May said. Gary stood up.  
  
"I'm going to head to gramp's lab and get some different pokemon out."  
  
"O.k." they said. Gary left.  
  
"Have you noticed when one person leaves, someone else leaves a moment later?" May asked.  
  
"No, I haven't," Ash said.  
  
"Let's go."  
  
"O.k." 


	5. The Secret Conversation a week and a hal...

- 5 -  
  
May and Anne were in her bedroom, trying to decide what to do.  
  
May: What do you want to do?  
  
Anne: How about talk?  
  
May: O.k. What do you want to talk about?  
  
Anne: How's that thing with your mom coming?  
  
May: Horrible. We can't convince her to go to that guy.  
  
Anne: Sorry about that. How's Ash doing? He ok?  
  
May: He's doing o.k.  
  
Anne: You going out with him yet?  
  
May: Sorta. We go on walks and stuff.  
  
Anne: Ohhh, has he kissed you?  
  
May: (blushing) A fair few times.  
  
Anne: Good. So is he your boyfriend...yet?  
  
May: Yes. We talked about that once...  
  
Anne: Wonderful! How long?  
  
May: Almost a week and a half.  
  
Anne: Alright. To change the subject, how's your Charmander, Charna I think it was?  
  
May: Inspiringly well.  
  
Anne: What level is she at?  
  
May: Level 40.  
  
Anne: She should've evolved by now.  
  
May: She didn't want to.  
  
Anne: Oh. Can I go with you to Goldenrod?  
  
May: Ask Mom and Dad.  
  
Anne: I did, I just wanted to find out what you would've said.  
  
May: I guess so then.  
  
Anne: Besides, I need to keep filming you and Ash on your dates.  
  
May: NO! DON"T YOU DARE!  
  
Anne: I ALREADY HAVE!!!  
  
May: YOU SHALL DIE, FOOL!  
  
Anne: Let me show you the video.  
  
May: I remember very well what happened, so don't bother!  
  
Anne: Too bad. Here it is.  
  
Anne took a videotape out of her bag. She slipped it in the VCR and pushed play. May shook her head angry. She glared at Anne, who was humming to herself, eyes closed. At the end of the tape, Anne pushed stop and the screen went blue (don't ask why).  
  
Anne: What do you think?  
  
May: I hate you.  
  
Anne: Well, Ash liked it!  
  
May: WHAT!?!?!?!  
  
Anne: I already showed it to him!  
  
May: (Horribly mad) Destroy it!  
  
Anne:(Raging mad) No, it's a work of art!  
  
May: (Going to kill Anne) If you don't destroy it, I WILL!  
  
Anne: (sarcastically)Oh I'm so scared, May is going to hurt me.  
  
May: (Advancing on Anne)YOU ARE SO DEAD!!!  
  
Anne: You wanna Dance! Comin' at ya! (Throws punch at May and hits her in the jaw)  
  
May: (Kicks Anne in the knees. Anne falls to the ground.)  
  
Anne: OKAY,I QUIT!!! You gotit, Dork!!! Doufus!!!  
  
May: Stop talking about yourself!!!  
  
Anne: Whatever!  
  
May: ...  
  
Anne: ...  
  
May: I got a question for you!  
  
Anne: WHAT!?  
  
May: Why are you so nosey?  
  
Anne: That's me.  
  
Ash walked in and looked at the two of them.  
  
Ash: What are you two doing?  
  
May: ASH!  
  
May hugged him. He smiled.  
  
Anne: Hi Ash! I showed her the video like you told me to.  
  
Ash: You idiot! I said if you showed her it, she would kill you!  
  
May: She's an idiot for sure.  
  
Anne: Hey!  
  
Ash: May's right, you are.  
  
May: Yep!  
  
Anne: I shall not stand here and get insulted!  
  
Ash: Then don't  
  
May: Yeah! (she had stopped hugging Ash)  
  
Anne: I'm leaving!  
  
Ash: Alright.  
  
May: You do just that.  
  
Anne: Good-bye!  
  
Anne stomped past and left. 


	6. Preparations For Goldenrod

- 6 -  
  
It was three days before the trip to Goldenrod. Mrs. Oak was packing and cleaning the house. Mr. Oak was double-checking their tickets. Gary was getting the stuff he was taking together. May, on the other hand, had gotten ready early.  
  
She was lying on her bed thinking. Penny was watching her owner.  
  
"I want Ash to come." May whinnied, "We're going to be gone for two weeks!"  
  
"Pika Pik. \Call him." Penny said. May looked at her.  
  
"O.k." She rushed down stairs to the phone. She pushed in Ash's number. Mrs. Ketchum answered.  
  
"Hello, May." she said brightly.  
  
"Hi, Mrs. Ketchum. Is Ash there?" May asked.  
  
"Yes, I'll get him..." she left.  
  
"Hi, May." Ash was there.  
  
"Hi, Ash. I got to ask you something."  
  
"Shoot."  
  
"You want to come to Goldenrod with us?"  
  
"Sure, I guess." he shrugged.  
  
"Ask your father!" Mrs. Oak yelled over to May.  
  
"Alright Mom! DAD!" she yelled.  
  
"WHAT?!" he yelled in reply.  
  
"Can you please come over here? I'll yell my self hoarse if this keeps up!" Mr. Oak walked over.  
  
"What is it?" he asked. She said something to him.  
  
"WHAT?! WHY'D YOU ASK ME NOW?!" he yelled. He looked ready to faint.  
  
"I just thought of it a few minutes ago," she said.  
  
"Well, I guess...ask his mother...if she says yes, I'll try to get another ticket to Goldenrod." he sighed. He looked at the screen of the phone (videophone). "What I don't do for you two."  
  
Ash smiled. "Not my idea, sir."  
  
Mr. Oak smiled. "Well, at least when she got herself a boyfriend, he's polite to people...so I don't really mind...much"  
  
"Ash, you should go ask your mom if you can come." May said.  
  
"No need, she's right here."  
  
"He can go if he wants." Mrs. Ketchum said.  
  
"I want to go!" Ash said quickly.  
  
"Better go see about that ticket then!" Mr. Oak said. He walked off.  
  
"Two weeks in Goldenrod!" May said cheerfully.  
  
"How many tickets are there now?" Ash asked.  
  
"Five," May said.  
  
"What happened to Anne?" Ash asked.  
  
"She lives in Saffron. She left yesterday." May replied.  
  
"UNBELIEVABLE!" Mr. Oak yelled.  
  
"What's the matter, Dad?" Gary asked coming into the room.  
  
"We were the last people to buy tickets for the plane...and there is still ten seats left on the plane!" May was shocked by that announcement.  
  
"Yes...Yes...Yes! Just make sure to get his as close to ours as possible? Oh! WHAT!? Where?" Mr. Oak looked surprised.  
  
"THANK YOU!" Mr. Oak said, he hung up, "DONE! Got his ticket ready."  
  
"You better start getting ready..."  
  
"Okay, bye."  
  
"Bye,"  
  
Three Days Later  
  
"Every one here? Ash? May? Gary?"  
  
"Yes," the three said.  
  
"Wonderful. Everyone ready? Got you stuff?"  
  
"Yes," they said again.  
  
"Great! Here's your plane tickets..." He handed them each one of the tickets. Ash looked at his.  
  
"Follow me!" Mr. Oak yelled. They walked to the plane gate together. The lady beside the doorway talked to Mr. Oak and he nodded.  
  
"You have to show this nice lady your tickets," he said. Him and Mrs. Oak showed theirs and walked to the side. May, Ash, and Gary showed her theirs. She nodded. They walked through the doorway to the plane.  
  
When they were on the plane Mr. Oak walked them half the way down the plane, then turned to them. He looked at Ash and whispered to him, "I made sure to get you next to May." Then in a louder voice so all of them could hear, "O.K! Let's get you lot in your seats!" He got May and Ash in their seats, then Gary. After he and Mrs. Oak had sat down, from a speaker someone said, "Ooookey! It's time to fly! Please sit down as we are about to leave the termanal!"  
  
They felt a jerk forward, which meant the plane was moving. May looked out the window. "We're on the run-way," she said. Ash nodded.  
  
The plane lifted up off the ground. "Okay! We'll be in Goldenrod City in two hours! Right now it is 11:30 a.m.!" rang the speaker.  
  
May unzipped her bag and brought out a laptop. She turned it on. Ash leaned over to see the screen, his eyes wide with curiosity and interest. On the screen were about a million icons. "This is the desktop," May said. She clicked on an icon that looked like a poke' dex with the mouse. It was labeled 'Pokemon Dictionary.'  
  
A new screen appeared. There was a giant poke ball with little ones around it. One was labeled 'Look up PKMN', another 'Add PKMN', another 'Delete PKMN', and the last 'Update PKMN.' May clicked on 'Add PKMN.' The screen changed to what looked like a form.  
  
"Let's see...Pokemon name, Electrode...type, Electric...information..." she said aloud as she typed. Ash helped her when she needed it...if he could. They did that half way through the plane trip.  
  
She saved and put the laptop away. They talked the rest of the way. "What do you want to do when we get to Goldenrod?" May asked.  
  
"Um, we could go get lunch then after that go try and get you that Pichu?" Ash asked. May shrugged.  
  
"Sounds good to me," she said. Soon they arrived in Goldenrod. 


	7. Goldenrod City

- 7 -  
  
  
  
They walked out of the airport. Mrs. Oak suggested that they should go get their hotel rooms, then they could all do what they wanted. The group was now in the hotel of Goldenrod, trying to get rooms.  
  
"There'za three rooms left, sir," the lady at the counter said.  
  
"We'll take those then," Mr. Oak said. She handed him the keys. "Okay, let's get your stuff up to the rooms..." They walked up the stairs. Mr. and Mrs. Oak were having a little argument.  
  
"I just don't think-" Mrs. Oak began.  
  
"I don't care! I know those two! I know they can handle it..." Mr. Oak said hotly. Ash and May looked at each other then back to the fighting adults.  
  
"But I don't think it's appropriate to-" Mrs. Oak began again.  
  
"Nothing is 'appropriate' to you!" Mr. Oak raged.  
  
"Well..." she started.  
  
"It's my decision! I say they do!" Mr. Oak yelled, a bite of finality in it.  
  
Mrs. Oak fell silent. Mr. Oak turned to the three of them. "Ok, Ash! May! Guess what!" They looked at him, but stayed silent. He continued, "You two are going to be sharing a room together!"  
  
They gaped at him. "What?" he asked.  
  
"Are you kidding?" May asked. He shook his head.  
  
"No, not kidding," he said. He took the keys and unlocked three doors. "Me and the witch over there (points to Mrs. Oak) will stay in this first room. You two will stay in this middle room, and Gary the last room."  
  
They opened the room doors. May peered inside her and Ash's room. There were three other doors, two dressers, a desk, and a full sized bed. "Dad?" May asked, "I think you should have a look at this room." He walked over and peered inside.  
  
When he withdrew his head, he asked, "What's the problem?"  
  
"'What's the problem?! " May yelled. Mr. Oak told her to quiet down. She did just that. She was talking to him in a very low whisper for a moment or two.  
  
"Well..." Mr. Oak said awkwardly, "Erm, okay, let's get your stuff in your rooms..." They walked into their rooms. May shut the door behind them. Ash looked around their room. Some thing didn't quite look right... "Ok, why is there four doors? There should only be two at the very least. This one-rapped knuckle on the door they came through-and one other. What are the other two for?" he asked. May shrugged.  
  
"Don't know and don't want to know."  
  
Ash sighed. May had once again took out the laptop, but put it on the desk. "Come on. Let's go."  
  
Ash opened the door and made a small bow. "You first, princess May," he said in a mocking way.  
  
"Knock it off." she ordered. He stood up straight. They were just about to leave when Mr. Oak came in.  
  
"Hello." he said to both of them, then he said to May, "I'm going to try and con your mom to go with me to see that friend of mine..."  
  
"Good luck," she said.  
  
"Yeah...I'm going to need it..." The three of them left the room. "Where are you two going?"  
  
"Out to try and get a Pichu," Ash said.  
  
"Good luck." Mr. Oak said.  
  
"No, no, no.you keep the good luck," May said. He smiled.  
  
"Alright, if you want." He went back to his and Mrs. Oak's room. They went down the stairs. The lady at the counter looked up.  
  
"Where ya two gettin' to, eh?" she asked. They looked at her.  
  
"Out to try and catch a Pichu." Ash said again.  
  
"Justa one?" she asked.  
  
"Ya,"  
  
"But theres' ah two of ya,"  
  
"It's for May."  
  
"Ahhhh, getin' yer girlfriend ah Pichu?"  
  
"Er, sorta."  
  
"Gooda luck ta ya."  
  
"Thanks," they said. The lady pulled Ash over to the counter.  
  
"Listen, ya can getta Pichu by thata house on the outskirts of tha town."  
  
"Thanks, ma' am."  
  
"Na problem, and.if ya don't finda Pichu there, there's owney one other way ta get one."  
  
"Ok, can you tell me the other way to get one, please?"  
  
"Sure. The other way is pretteh simple...in that house lives a couple tha'll breed yer pokemon, go to tham. Give tham a male and female Pikachu. Leave those Pikachus there for a day or two, then go back. Tha couple should then have ah poke egg with Pichu in at."  
  
"Thanks." Ash said quickly, "May! Wait up!" He ran to catch up to her.  
  
Outside they walked to the edge of the town. Ash looked around for the house while they walked. After he spotted it, he asked May to follow him. They walked over by the house and stopped. "What's the matter, Ash?" she asked.  
  
"The lady at the hotel said to look around here for a Pichu," he said. May nodded. They spent two hours looking for a Pichu.  
  
"It's no use. There aren't any," May said sadly. Ash looked at the house and frowned. "What's the matter?" she asked.  
  
"There's only one other way to get a Pichu."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"She told me, 'if ya don't finda Pichu there, there's owney one other way ta get one.'"  
  
"What's the other way?" she asked. Ash frowned even more.  
  
"Pokemon breeding."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"There's a couple that live in this house. You leave a one male and one female pikachu. They breed them."  
  
"O.k. That's weird, but I guess its obvious." she said. He looked down at the ground to look at his Pikachu. It looked up at him.  
  
"We better get back. It's getting late..." he said softly. May had a feeling he didn't like the thought of breeding pokemon, and said that to talk about some thing else.  
  
At the hotel, when they stepped in, the lady looked up. "Whale, I say ya two are back. Any luck?"  
  
"No." they said.  
  
"Too bad. Well, there's only one other opinion..."  
  
"I told her that already." Ash said.  
  
"Well? Are ya goin' to do it?" May shrugged.  
  
"Don't know yet."  
  
"Tale me when ya do."  
  
"Okay." They started up the stairs. When they got back to their room, Ash looked at May.  
  
"Get Penny out," Ash said abruptly.  
  
"Oh? Why?"  
  
"You'll see." She sent it out. Penny looked at them.  
  
"Pikachu! Come here!" Pikachu walked up to it's trainer.  
  
"Look at them, May." She looked at the two Pikachu. Her eyes went wide.  
  
"Oh, yes, well, ask them." she said.  
  
"Pikachu? Penny? Can we ask you two for a favor?" The two Pikachus nodded their heads. He explained to them about it and they were in shock. His Pikachu looked at him.  
  
It took a few minutes, but reluctantly they agreed at the end.  
  
"Do you mind if I look at that program you were using on your computer?" he asked.  
  
"Nah. What time is it?"  
  
"7 O' clock."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"Kids! Come on!" It was Mr. Oak. Gary, Ash, and May walked out and stood in front of him. "We're going out to eat." They nodded. Mrs. Oak walked up to them. They started down the stairs.  
  
When they got down there, May mouthed to the lady at the counter, "We're doing it! Our Pikachus!" 


	8. Pokemon Breeding

- 8 -  
  
Ash awoke first. He looked at May. Making sure not to wake her up, he climbed out of bed. He walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. A thirteen-year-old looked back at him. He got dressed and ready to go.  
  
He didn't hear May get up. When he walked back in there she startled him. She smirked.  
  
"I scared you, did I?"  
  
"How in the world are you so quiet? I didn't hear you get up." he asked.  
  
"How should I know?" she said. She grabbed her bag and started rummaging through it.  
  
"Let's see now, were are my clothes.aha! Found them!" she yelled. She started pulling things out-a brush, her clothes, ect. He watched here while she did this.  
  
"Alright, Penny! Come here!" she yelled. Penny ran over and jumped onto the bed. May took the bow off of her and put a red one on her. Ash gaped at her. "There you go!" Penny hopped off the bed.  
  
"Okay...I'll get ready, then we can go take the Pikachus to that couple, then...then..." she said. They thought for a moment.  
  
"Let's think about what we'll do after the couple when it comes up?" Ash said. May nodded. She hurried into the bathroom and got ready. When she was out, they walked out into the hallway out side their rooms. Downstairs, they saw that lady reading a book behind the counter. She looked up and smiled.  
  
"Whale, would ya look at this! Ya two are up. What's ya two up to?"  
  
"We're going to go see that couple so I can get a Pichu." May said.  
  
"Wonderful. See ya in a bit then." They walked out and went back to that house. Ash knocked on the door. A old woman opened it and looked out.  
  
"Hello, may I help you?" she asked.  
  
"Yes, I want to get a pichu." May said quietly.  
  
"Come in! Come in! Then we shall talk..." They walked into the house. A old man was siting at the table. They all sat down at the table.  
  
"Yes, so, you want a Pichu? Am I correct?"  
  
"You're correct." May said.  
  
"Do you got two Pikachu?"  
  
"Yep. Go! Penny!" May called. Penny came out of her poke ball.  
  
"Come here, Pikachu." Ash ordered. Pikachu walked up to them and jumped onto the table.  
  
"Ah, good. Now it will take at least a day...but maybe shorter or longer...once it took 2 hours and another 5 days." the old lady said.  
  
"O.k." they said. She nodded to the old man. He stood up.  
  
"He's going to take them to a special room we use for this. Please tell your pokemon to go with him."  
  
"Go with him." they said to the pikachus. They followed the old man to the room and disappeared.  
  
"Ash, I wouldn't say no to a little exploring around Goldenrod?"  
  
"I guess we could," he said.  
  
"We'll come back in a few hours to check up on them, ok?"  
  
"Sure." the old lady said.  
  
"Bye." They left.  
  
"Where do you want to go?" Ash asked.  
  
"Any where." May said.  
  
"Let's go to the pokemon center and look at my map of Johto and decide." Ash said. When they got there, they spread the map across one of the tables.  
  
"Let's see...ok, on the other side of town there's a path that forks at the end. One goes to the National Park and the other goes straight to the path on the other side of the National Park. It leads to I think...oh, I've forgotten were it leads..."  
  
"Let's do that path!"  
  
"Ok...let's go!" They headed to the other side of the town. When they got to the fork, Ash was looking down one path.  
  
"This one," they headed down that one, but soon had to stop. A tree was blocking the way!  
  
"Sudowoodo," Ash said. May looked at him.  
  
"Sudowoodo?" she choked. He nodded.  
  
"Go, Tododile."  
  
"Todo."  
  
"Water gun." The water pokemon used water gun on Sudowoodo. It wiggled and challenged him to a fight.  
  
"Return, Tododile. Go Cyndaquil." Totodile returned to it's poke ball and Cyndaquil came out. "Flame Thrower."  
  
Cyndaquil didn't think twice and did the attack. Sudowoodo fainted.  
  
"Poke ball, go." he tossed the ball at the fallen pokemon. He caught it.  
  
"Let's keep going." They continued to walk. Soon they reached Ecruteak City!  
  
"Wow!" May said. They looked around the town for a while then went back to Goldenrod. They headed to the old lady's house to check up on the pokemon.  
  
"You came at the perfect time. Your pikachus just had a poke egg!" the old lady said. She lead them over to the table. Penny and pikachu were having a heated match of tag around the table, but ran to their trainer and owner when they were spotted.  
  
"Would you like to see the poke egg?"  
  
"Sure." they said. The old man brought it over to the table and lightly set it down. It was yellow, with lightning bolt stripes.  
  
"How much do I owe you?" May asked.  
  
"Nothing. There were so well behaved and so on, so we won't charge you a thing." May picked up the poke egg.  
  
"It's light."  
  
"May, let's go back to the hotel and show your mom and dad. Your mom will most likely scream though...." Ash suggested. May nodded. She set it back on the table and slipped her book bag off. Then she put the poke egg in it and zipped it shut.  
  
"We'll make it a surprise. Come on Penny. Thanks ma 'am and sir."  
  
` "No problem," the old lady said.  
  
They left. 


	9. Pichus and Charms

- 9 -  
  
"Whale, hi thare. Did ya do the pokemon breeding?"  
  
"Yes." Ash said.  
  
"Whale? What happened?" May slipped her book bag off again and took the poke egg out. The lady at the counter was impressed.  
  
"Now ya have to make sure it stays nice and warm so it can hatch."  
  
"Ok...Then I'll have a Pichu!" May yelled. They said good-bye to her and ran up stairs.  
  
"Hey, Mom! Dad!" May yelled. Mr. and Mrs. Oak emerged from their own room.  
  
"What's the-what is that?" Mrs. Oak yelled. May frowned.  
  
"It's a poke egg," May said stiffly.  
  
"Take good care of it," Mr. Oak said.  
  
"Okay," she said. Mr. Oak steered Mrs. Oak back into their room.  
  
"Let's get back into our room," Ash said.  
  
When they were in their room, May set the poke egg on the bed. She set to work getting her stuff out of her book bag. After that was done, she wrapped the poke egg in a blanket and put it in the book bag.  
  
"There, all done. Let's see were these other two doors lead...I just thought of it," May said. Ash opened the door next to the desk on the left- hand side of the room-it was a corridor.  
  
"Let's go." They started down it.  
  
"I know where this leads now! It leads to Gary's room! So the other leads to Mom and Dad's room...but were does this doorway halfway down it lead?" May said.  
  
"Let's look," May opened it and peered inside-another corridor. They walked down that new corridor. At the end was a room with a pool in it.  
  
"Amazing!" May yelled. It echoed in the huge room.  
  
"Let's go back and check on the pokemon. You never know what their up to..." Ash suggested.  
  
When they got back they checked on the Pikachus who were once again playing a match of tag. "Let's head to dinner. I'm starving!" May said.  
  
Later That Night  
  
"Why is it so cold tonight?" May asked, shivering.  
  
"It'sa snowin'," the lady at the counter said.  
  
"But don't you have a heater here?" Ash asked.  
  
"Yep, but it's ah broken."  
  
"Damn! Why'd it have to be broken now?" Ash said.  
  
"Dunno, but ain't it abou' time ya two got ta bed? It's 11 a' clock!"  
  
"Ok. Good night." They hurried up the stairs and into their room. After they had both gotten ready for bed, May showed Ash the stuff on her laptop for half-a-hour till Mr. Oak came in. 'Time for bed, you two' he had said to them. May shut the laptop off and climbed into bed.  
  
"When do you think that Pichu egg will hatch?" May asked. Ash sat down on the side of the bed.  
  
"Um, tomorrow?" he said.  
  
"Not if this keeps up..." May said. Ash lied down next to her, frowning slightly.  
  
"It'll hatch...some time," Ash said slowly. May smiled slightly with a small 'I guess.' "Let's try to sleep at the very least," Ash said.  
  
May shut her eyes, going to attempt to go to sleep...but as hard as she tried, she couldn't. She looked at the clock: 1:00 a.m. May was looking at the ceiling, but glanced at her book bag. She sighed and went back to looking at the ceiling. "What's the matter?" some one asked. Ash was awake.  
  
"What are you doing up?" May asked.  
  
"Nothing. Why are you up?" he said.  
  
"Can't sleep." She sighed.  
  
"Oh, why not?" May looked at him.  
  
"I don't know why." She sat up and looked around the room. "I don't know."  
  
Ash sat up, too, and looked at her. "Still pretty cold here, isn't it?" May nodded. She combed her fingers through her hair.  
  
"Why is this happening?" she moaned. He frowned very slightly.  
  
"No one knows why anything happens." She looked at him. "You never know what happens, it's just fate."  
  
"Alright, if you say so," she replied, shrugging. He was still frowning, but tried to smile a little.  
  
"Come here." He hugged her. "Just try to stop thinking about that Pichu and try to get to sleep."  
  
"I'll try...again." she said. He lied back, still hugging her. Her head was on his chest, so she turned her head up, so she could look at him.  
  
"Good." he said. She smiled slightly.  
  
"Isn't it strange?" she asked.  
  
"What?" Ash asked in confusion.  
  
"Sleeping in the same room together," she replied. Ash nodded.  
  
"Yeah, you get so used to having your own room, then THIS."  
  
"Well, you better get used to it!" May looked at him.  
  
"Why?" Ash asked.  
  
"Because when we get married, we will sleep in the same room EVERY night!"  
  
"Hey there! That's thinking a little far!" he said, his eyes going extremely wide. May laughed.  
  
"I was kidding, silly!" she giggled. They fell into silence. After several minutes, they both bell asleep.  
  
That morning (7:00), they both woke up at the same time. They soon learned pikachu had woke them up. "Pikachu! \The egg!"  
  
"What's the matter with it?" May asked. She looked at her book bag, it was-shaking? "Penny, can you get my book bag?" The pikachu some how brought it over. Ash and May sat up. May grabbed the book bag, opened it, and took the poke egg out. There were cracks near the top of it.  
  
"It's hatching?" Ash asked. He noticed he was still hugging her and let go.  
  
"Ya," It cracked more. She set it down on her lap. All of a sudden, it split open. They saw the pichu sitting there. The Pichu was confused and was looking around the room.  
  
It spotted them and squeaked happily. it was looking at May. Then squeaked, "Pichu Pichu!" Pikachu and penny burst out laughing.  
  
"Now what is it with you two? What did it say?" May yelled.  
  
"Pikachu Pika!\ It just called you Mommy!" Pikachu yelled.  
  
"I'm not surprised by that," she said, with as much dignity as she could muster. She looked at the Pichu again. It looked at her and pointed at Ash.  
  
"What? Ash?" May asked. it nodded and opened it's mouth to say some thing. "Before you say it out loud, tell penny. Penny!" Penny walked over and sat down next to Pichu. it chatted with penny for a second. Penny laughed again.  
  
"What did it say?" penny whispered to May what it said. She smirked. "Oh, this is so weird. Guess what Pichu said you are, Ash."  
  
"What? I don't know! Tell me!"  
  
"Ok, but you're not going to like it..."  
  
"FOR HEAVENS SAKE! JUST TELL ME!"  
  
"Ok but you'll be sorry...I'll make it into a question: What goes next to mom in a family?" Ash's eyes went very wide indeed.  
  
"Where do you think you're going?" she said. Pichu had climbed out of the egg shell and started walking off. She grabbed it and brought it back. It squeaked again and started hopping around the bed. Mr. Oak walked into their room.  
  
"Hello, hey is that Pichu? Did that egg hatch already?"  
  
"Yes." Ash said.  
  
"Pichu seems to think of him as it's, er..." May started.  
  
"It thinks I'm It's daddy!" he yelled.  
  
"So? What's the problem with that?" Mr. Oak asked.  
  
"I think it's cute." May said, "Ash is daddy! Ash is daddy!"  
  
"Shaddup," Ash snapped.  
  
"You two should get ready," Mr. Oak said loudly.  
  
"For what?" they said.  
  
"For breakfast!" Mr. Oak cried, "That lady that gave us these rooms, she said her name was Rose or something, invited us to her house for breakfast!"  
  
"Ok."  
  
"We'll all meet down stairs." When he left, Ash looked at May.  
  
"Why do you mock me?" he asked.  
  
"I was joking! Just go get ready for breakfast while I get these pieces from the poke egg cleaned up..." He jumped off the bed and slipped into the bedroom. He got dressed and when he got out of there after two minutes, May was having a little trouble.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"I got cut from one of these pieces."  
  
"You go get ready and I'll do the rest of the cleaning of this stuff and watch Pichu..." May gather her cloths from the stack she made by the desk and walked into the bathroom.  
  
She heard Pichu squeal again, but didn't think it was in trouble or any thing. Ash picked up the rest of the eggshell and threw them away. Pichu squealing away on the end of the bed. "What do you want?" he asked, sitting down on the bed. Pichu walked over and sat back down next to him. It stretched it arms out, wanting to be picked up.  
  
Ash picked it up, awkwardly, and looked at it. It squealed again. He had his Official Pokemon league hat on and Pichu was reaching up at it. He took it off and put it on the Pichu's head. It cocked its head to the left then the right.  
  
May was starting to wonder why Pichu's squeals were muffled. After she was finished getting dressed, she edged into the room, as quietly as she could. She smiled. "Well now, why don't you put your hat back on before it suffocates Pichu?" May said. Ash turned around to look at her.  
  
"Oh, that's nice. Why don't we go down stairs now? So your parents don't get mad at us or something." Ash said, putting his league hat on. She nodded.  
  
When they were all downstairs, they headed to Rose's house. She greeted them when they made it. "hallo, all of ya. Now I say ya got ah Pichu already?" she said cheerfully.  
  
"Yah, it hatched just a while ago," May said. Pichu squeaked.  
  
"Well, come on in." Inside they sat at the table and talked for a while.  
  
'"Do you have any muffins or something?" May asked. Pichu was making a lot of noise trying to get away to explore a bit.  
  
"Yep, I sure do. I'll get um'." She walked into the kitchen and came back out with a bowl full of muffins. May took one and broke it apart over her plate and stuck some of it in Pichu's mouth.  
  
That kept it quiet for a few minutes, but then it started trying to get away again. "Let me see Pichu," Ash said. May-with difficulty-handed him Pichu. He then said to it, "Stop that."  
  
It fell silent. They were all watching him. Pichu looked at him. He set it down on his lap and it sat there, quietly. "That was unusual," Rose said. Ash shrugged.  
  
"Whatever you say."  
  
"Well, why don't we eat, eh?" Mr. Oak said suddenly. They all agreed on this.  
  
"Pi pichu! \I'm hungry!" Pichu whined. Ash smiled.  
  
"Pichu is hungry. May? What does your Pichu eat?" May shrugged.  
  
"I don't really know. I just gave it a muffin to try to keep it quiet..."  
  
"Pichu! Pi chu pichu, chu pichu! \Muffin! I want muffin, Daddy!" it squeaked. He looked at May again.  
  
"It wants another muffin."  
  
"Here." she handed him one. He looked at the muffin then at her.  
  
"You want me to feed Pichu? Why don't you?"  
  
"Because you have it. Plus, I just gave it one." Ash looked at Pichu, who was sitting silently, waiting. He, like May, broke it apart and gave it part of the muffin. Pichu chewed quietly then looked up at him again. Ash handed it more. That too, got chewed on.  
  
"Will I ever get to eat?" he asked.  
  
"No, not till Pichu is done," May said. Pichu looked at him.  
  
"Pichu. \Done." it said.  
  
"Ok. Now I can eat!" he said. All through the rest of breakfast they talked about different things that happens in Goldenrod and people who live there.  
  
Rose, every once in a while, joked around about Pichu and it having the thought of Ash being dad. May and Ash would wonder how she knew that, and soon found out.  
  
"Whale, I ander stand pokemon." she said after a while, "It's ah gift of mine."  
  
After breakfast they said good-bye to her and left. Right after they left, Mrs. Oak said to Ash, "You know, if you were to grow up and had children you'd be pretty good at raising them." They all looked at her.  
  
"What? Why do you say that?" he asked.  
  
"Because, you do a good job with that Pichu." she said. He shook his head.  
  
"What's that suppose to mean?" he asked.  
  
"You'll see when you're a adult...and married"  
  
"If I ever do." he said.  
  
"I'm sure you will." she said simply.  
  
"How are you sure of that, dear?" Mr. Oak asked her.  
  
"I've got my reasons for being sure." He shrugged, not wanting to know these "reasons," for knowing.  
  
"Come on, let's go see Robert. We haven't seen him for years! The last time he saw these kids was when they were just two year olds!" Mr. Oak cried. Mrs. Oak sighed.  
  
"Fine! But no charms!" she said. Mr. Oak nodded.  
  
At Robert's house they rang the doorbell. They heard a faint sound of chimes inside. The door opened up, a man with slick, jet-black hair, the eeriest gray eyes you'd ever want to see, and very odd cloths stood in the doorway.  
  
"Robert, old man! How are you?" Mr. Oak said.  
  
"Wonderful, Tim. How are you? Oh! Maggie!" He hugged Mrs. Oak. "And May and Gary! You two have grown a lot! And I see one of you has a Pichu! How wonderful! Oh, come in, please!" They walked into the house and into the living room and sat down.  
  
"Tim! Maggie! I see you have a third here! Yours?"" His eyes fell onto Ash.  
  
"No, not ours, a friend of May's, Don't you remember?" Mr. Oak asked.  
  
"I think I do..." Robert said. He put a hand up to silence Ash, who had opened his mouth to tell Robert who he was. "Let me see.... let me see, I think I remember...oh yes, now I think I remember now...Your first name is Ashton, right?"  
  
"Yes," Ash replied.  
  
"I really don't now the rest of your name..."  
  
"My full name is Ashton Satoshi Ketchum," Ash said. Robert nodded his head.  
  
"oh yes, do I now remember...May always played with you, wouldn't play with her own brother! She never did anything with anybody but you...very weird the way she acted...had a fit when Tim or Maggie asked her to play with some one else for a change..." he broke off.  
  
"Yes, Robert, I think that's enough of the past for the moment...have you found out any new charms?" Mr. Oak said loudly. Robert shook his head.  
  
"No. No new ones. By the way, that pichu looks tired, I can use a revitalizing charm and it'd perk right up!"  
  
"No," May said.  
  
"Come on, it wouldn't hurt it..."  
  
"No!" she said again.  
  
"Please let me do it!" he begged.  
  
"NO!" May yelled. She hugged pichu tighter to her.  
  
"Alright, I won't do it. So how have you all been?"  
  
"Pretty good," Mr. Oak said.  
  
"Good. I'd like to show you one of my charms...It makes sparks fly out of the fire place..." He stepped to the side and took out his wand. He pointed it at the fire place and said some thing under his breath. At first nothing happened, then sparks came out.  
  
After the sparks stopped, he said, "What a show! Now that that's done, let's, um, talk some more! May! When did you get that pichu?'  
  
"This morning."  
  
"Good. Well done."  
  
"Pichu pichu, pi pich pichu. Pi pichu \Mommy, I want to go. He's scary."  
  
"Ok. Mom? Can I go?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Come on Ash, let's go find pikachu..."  
  
"Why?" he asked. Then catching on, he said, "oh, ok. Let's go. It was nice to meet you Mr., um, Robert." He stood up and walked out with May.  
  
"What's the matter?" he asked, when out of the house.  
  
"Those charms he does...I don't like them, and rather not be around them...especially when he does them."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Let's just say there was a little incident when he came to my house for a few days when we were two."  
  
"I really don't want to find out what happened at the moment, but it sounds like it was pretty bad. Let's go back to the hotel or some thing." 


	10. Moltres

- 10 -  
  
After a few days, every one had warmed to Pichu. One of the bad things was that it tried to stay as close to May or Ash as possible. Once or twice Ash had said, "Pichu is a little electrical shadow."  
  
They never were alone and they were really getting annoyed. One afternoon they were going to go on a walk in the national park, and of course it wanted to go.  
  
"No," Ash said.  
  
"Pichu!?\Please!?"  
  
"I said no, and I mean no" It knew to give up by then, because it knew how far is too far with both May and Ash.  
  
"May, come on!" he yelled. She walked over and looked at Pichu, who was now sitting on the desk.  
  
"Penny and Pikachu are going to watch you while we're gone." she said. Pikachu jumped up onto the desk, and nodded. "We'll be back in a while." She petted it on the head. Pichu whimpered slightly. "We'll be back."  
  
With a wave they left. Down stairs they saw Rose. She said, "Hi dare, how ya doin'? Whare ya headin' ta?"  
  
"To the national park for a little walk and to get away from that Pichu of mine."  
  
"Whale, I don' want ta hold ya up. Have fun."  
  
They nodded and hurried out of the hotel. At the national park, they noticed, there were alot of pokemon trainers. "I wonder what's going on." May said.  
  
"Bug catching contest I think...is it Tuesday?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Well, I know a path in here that nobody knows about...at least when I found it no one knew about it..."  
  
"Oh, where's that?"  
  
"This way." He lead May over to a break in the fence. "Through here."  
  
They climbed through the break onto another path. One side was nothing but trees and the other was the fence. May looked around.  
  
"Let's keep going," Ash said. Holding hands, they walked on. May was surprised because of it being so quiet. Soon trees surrounded them.  
  
After a while the path came to an end. "This path is longer then before..."  
  
"Let's rest for a bit before we head back the other way to get back." May suggested. He shrugged. May sat down at the bottom of one of the trees. Ash sat down next to her.  
  
"It doesn't make sense...I was sure I had seen this whole path..." he said.  
  
"Why does it matter?" May asked.  
  
"I don't know, it just bugging me that this path longer then it was before for some reason." May hugged him.  
  
"By be some of the trees fell down or some thing, and that's why it's longer." Ash shook his head.  
  
"Not likely." May was frowning slightly at this, but made a small smile.  
  
"Well, at least we don't have that little electrical shadow following us right now." He smiled a little.  
  
"Yeah, no Pichu..." For the first time since Pichu had hatched, they were alone, and they just realized that. At that moment, they went into a kiss.  
  
Ash broke away after a few minutes because of hearing some thing in the depths of the trees. "What's the matter?" May asked.  
  
"I heard some thing..in the trees..."  
  
"It could be a pokemon." Ash shook his head.  
  
"Human."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Yes. Some one is in the trees." A man emerged from the trees, knowing that he was caught. He was very tall, at least almost 6 foot  
  
"Hello, Ash." the stranger said.  
  
"Oh, who are you?" Ash asked, standing up.  
  
"My name is Mark...Mark Ketchum." he said. Ash and May looked at him, shocked.  
  
"M-Mark Ketchum?" May gasped, also standing up.  
  
"Yes, May?" he asked.  
  
"Ok, how did you know my name, because I don't know you..."May asked.  
  
"Simple, Ash is always talking about you."  
  
"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!" Ash yelled, "NO ONE IS SUPPOSE TO KNOW THAT BUT PIKACHU!"  
  
"I've been following you around, Ash. Ok, guess who I am before we talk on."  
  
"Um, who you are, who you are..." Ash said softly to himself. May looked at him closely. Soon a thought came to her mind.  
  
"I know who you are now. if you think about it...your Ash's dad!" May said.  
  
"Yes, May." he said. Ash was gaping at him.  
  
"Ok let's get this straight...my dad has been following me around for what reason?"  
  
"Just to see you." Mr. Ketchum said.  
  
"Have you ever thought of saying 'hi?'" Ash asked.  
  
"No, never thought of that... any way, before I forget, didn't you say to your Pikachu some time ago that you had some thing you wanted to give to May?" Mr. Ketchum asked. Ash sighed.  
  
"WHY do you have to keep telling her what I say?" Ash asked.  
  
"I don't know," Mr. Ketchum shrugged.  
  
"Well stop it, please" Ash said. Mr. Ketchum nodded.  
  
"Well, I guess I ought to give it to you," Ash said. May shrugged. He reached into his pockets, looking for some thing. After a minute, he found it and brought it out-a poke ball. "It's one of the pokemon you said you wanted."  
  
She took it and looked at it. Then she let it out of the poke ball-a Moltres came out. "How did you get this?" she asked. He shrugged.  
  
"Some one just gave it to me for no reason at all. I thought you might like it," Ash shrugged again.  
  
"Thank you, Ash!" she yelled. She hugged him.  
  
"Well, I'm off," Mr. Ketchum said.  
  
"Were to?" May asked. He shrugged.  
  
"I really don't now...going to go catch more pokemon I guess..." he said.  
  
"Bye, good luck." they said.  
  
"Bye back to you." he said, walking away, down the path. Moltres squawked.  
  
"Oh yeah, Moltres return!" May ordered. It returned to it's poke ball. "This turned out to be a pretty interesting walk." she commented. Ash nodded in agreement.  
  
"It sure has." he said.  
  
"Let's head back." May said.  
  
Ash took hold of her hand and they headed back. 


	11. Mother’s Rage

- 11 -  
  
The night(11:00) after May and Ash's encounter with Mr. Ketchum at the park. Pichu is asleep at the bottom of the bed. Ash and May are sitting near the top, playing a game on her laptop. 'Game over' came from the speaker on the laptop.  
  
May said, "Let's shut this off before it over heats or some thing..." She shut it off and shut the lid, and slid it under the bed. She smiled.  
  
"Done with that." she said. She leaned against him. "Now what should we do?"  
  
He thought a moment. "Don't really know..."  
  
He put his head on her shoulder. She gave him a kiss. "That.was unexpected..." he said.  
  
"I don't know how old I was when Mom said it, but she said, 'You should always expect the unexpected." May said. He thought about that a moment.  
  
"Ok, now that I know that, what does it mean?"  
  
"Beats me," May said.  
  
"Your own mom said that and you don't know what it means? Didn't she tell you?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Too bad she didn't tell you...it would help!" he said.  
  
"Whatever," May said. He gave her a kiss, but that time held it.  
  
Mrs. Oak was walking down the corridor, between her and Mr. Oak's room and May and Ash's room, going to check up on them...but tonight is different.  
  
She reached the door and opened it a bit, just enough to see inside. Her eyes went very wide at the sight of the two of them, kissing. Next her face went red, in anger and rage. She kicked the door open the rest of the way.  
  
Startled by her entrance, the couple broke apart and looked at her. May looked horrified. "Uh no..."  
  
"What?" Ash said in a whisper.  
  
"Yesterday Dad told me some thing that's very bad, 'Your mother can be very violent after she has been drinking...and I found that out the hard way...'" May said in a whisper back. His eyes went very wide at that information.  
  
"Great...just great..." he said, miserably. Mrs. Oak looked at them.  
  
"WHAT IN THE WORLD DID YOU TWO THINK YOU WERE DOING?!" she barked. May hoped off the bed and walked up to her mother.  
  
"We weren't doing any thing," she said.  
  
"Oh yeah? I'M NOT BLIND! I SAW YOU TWO...you two..." Mrs. Oak couldn't think of what to say.  
  
"Kissing? What'd you think we'd be doing, playing checkers?" May said sarcastically.  
  
"ANY THING BUT THAT! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" Mrs. Oak yelled.  
  
"Nothing! Nothing at all! And any way, who said you could go and spy on us?!" May yelled.  
  
"I SAID I COULD! ME AND YOUR FATHER HAVE THAT RIGHT, BEING YOUR PARENTS AND ALL!" Mrs. Oak yelled.  
  
"AT LEAST DAD COMES IN TO CHECK ON US AND DOESN'T WATCH US FROM BEHIND THE DOOR!" May yelled.  
  
"WELL, I'M NOT YOUR FATHER! SO GET USE TO IT!" Mrs. Oak yelled.  
  
"You're not your self. You would never react this badly to some thing!" May said.  
  
"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!?" Mrs. Oak yelled.  
  
"I'm saying, I know what's wrong with you," May said.  
  
"Like what?" Mrs. Oak asked.  
  
"You've been out drinking, haven't you?" May asked.  
  
"That's none of your business!" Mrs. Oak said.  
  
"So what? It none of your business what we are doing." May shot back.  
  
"It is my business." Mrs. Oak said.  
  
"Whatever."  
  
"Don't you 'whatever' me!"  
  
"OH, SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE! GO BOTHER DAD OR SOME THING!" May screamed.  
  
"DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME TO SHUT UP!"  
  
"Oh shut up, you old hag!" May yelled. Ignoring her, Mrs. Oak turned to Ash, who was at the end of the bed with Pichu, who had been awoken by their yelling.  
  
"Oh, now look at what you two did! You woke up that Pichu!'  
  
"Us? US!? What do you mean us?! YOU WOKE PICHU UP!" Ash yelled.  
  
"You two woke up that Pichu, and that's final!" she yelled.  
  
"Liar!" May yelled. Mrs. Oak looked at her.  
  
"I am not a liar...and if you say that again you will be sorry." she said menacingly.  
  
"I'm not afraid of you. Like I said before, you are a liar!" May said back. Mrs. Oak took her by the throat.  
  
"Say that again..." Mrs. Oak said. May looked horrified. Ash hoped off the bed and walked over to them.  
  
"LET HER GO!" he yelled.  
  
"No."  
  
"MR.OAK! HELP!" Ash bellowed. They heard some one running down that corridor and stop dead in the door way-Mr. Oak.  
  
"Maggie! Let her go!" Mr. Oak barked.  
  
"Forget it," Mrs. Oak said. Mr. Oak walked up to her and took hold of her wrist.  
  
"LET GO!" he yelled. Mrs. Oak loosened her grip, but not completely...but enough so Mr. Oak could pull her away.  
  
"Get back to the room! NOW!" Mr. Oak barked.  
  
"FINE!" she stomped away. Mr. Oak turned to Ash and May, both of whom were shaken by that.  
  
"I am so sorry. I've got to stop this...but that was very close to getting very nasty. I'm going to get Robert and get this over with tomorrow faster then you can say 'pokemon...'" he said.  
  
"G-good..." Ash said, dropping to his knee's, next to May, who had collapsed.  
  
"Well, I'm off...good night, kids..." he left.  
  
"That...was...scary..." May choked. Ash nodded.  
  
"Very."  
  
"Let's go to bed." May said.  
  
"Alright, I guess," he said. They stood up and got back onto the bed.  
  
"I hope that never happens again." May said.  
  
"Me too. It won't if your dad succeeds." Ash said. May frowned.  
  
"Yeah, and this is getting out of control so let's hope he does."  
  
"Let's go to sleep instead of talking about your mom," Ash said. May lied back onto her pillow and turned her head to look at Ash.  
  
"If it doesn't work, we're doomed." May said. Ash looked at her.  
  
"Doomed? I don't think it's that bad...yet," he said, lying back.  
  
"Let's hope so," May said.  
  
"Yeah. Good night, May.' Ash said.  
  
"Good night," May said. She shut her eyes to get some sleep...for the next day, she'll need it badly. 


	12. The Last Charm

- 12 -  
  
At 7:30 Mr. Oak had shaken May awake. "What is it?" she asked.  
  
"Get dressed and meet me in the hall way."  
  
"All right. What about pichu and Ash and the pikachus?" she asked.  
  
"They're staying here."  
  
"What?!" May gasped.  
  
"Just get ready."  
  
"Ok." Mr.Oak walked out. May climbed out of bed, careful not to wake Ash up. She got dressed quickly and quietly. Then she wrote a note to Ash and the pokemon, in case he and the rest woke up while she was gone, and set it on the desk, then walked over to the door, opened it, and walked out.  
  
Out side, Mr.Oak stood with Mrs.Oak next to the stairs. She ran over to meet them. "Where we going?" she asked.  
  
"You'll see," Mr.Oak said. She stayed silent after that. It took a few minutes of walking to get there...to Robert's house.  
  
"What are we doing here?!" Mrs.Oak demanded to know.  
  
"To help you." Mr.Oak said.  
  
"I'm out of here!" Mrs.Oak yelled. Mr.Oak grabbed hold of her shoulders.  
  
"You shall stay here."  
  
The door opened all of a sudden, and Mr.Oak pushed Mrs.Oak in, while May came in after them. They went into the living room and soon Robert came in.  
  
"Let's get this over with." he said. He pointed his wand at Mrs.Oak. She shrieked and ran. Mr.Oak took hold of her shoulders and held her still.  
  
"Do it."  
  
Robert took a deep breath and pointed his wand at her, again. He looked at them then said, "No, not yet. May? Do me a favour and go get that mirror and stand next to the fire place, to the right of it."  
  
She hesitated till her father said, "May! Hurry up!"  
  
She grabbed the mirror and ran over to the fire place. "Ok, hold the mirror at a side ways angle...good, hold still now..."  
  
He pointed his wand at the mirror and said some thing under his breath. There was a flash, and Mrs.Oak fainted.  
  
"Wonderful! It worked. Er, that can happen..." Mr.Oak set her on the couch, and they waited.  
  
Back at the hotel, Pichu was having a panic attack.  
  
"chupichu! Pichu pichu pi pich!\Daddy! Mommy is gone!" it yelled. Ash awoke at the yells from Pichu, because he wouldn't have slept through it.  
  
"Gone? Well, I guess she's ok, Pichu. Don't worry about it."  
  
"Pika.\Note." Pikachu said, hoping onto the bed, a piece of paper in it's mouth. Ash sat up and took it and read what it said out loud, "'Dear Ash, Pichu, and Pikachus, Dad's taking me some where. I don't know when I'll be back though, because he didn't say where we were going. See ya later. Love, May' I told you she's fine."  
  
Pichu cocked it's head to the left. Ash said, "Now what? Don't tell me you want to go find her?"  
  
Pichu nodded.  
  
"We'd have to search the whole town...unless..." he thought a moment about the night before and what Mr.Oak had said to them.'I'm going to get Robert and get this over with tomorrow faster then you can say 'pokemon''  
  
"I think i know where she is." Ash said," If you want, I'll get dressed and we'll go."  
  
Pichu nodded. He hurried and got ready.  
  
"Let's go."  
  
He picked up Pichu and whistled to the Pikachus. They left for Robert's house.  
  
When there, he rung the door bell. Robert hurried to the door and opened it. With out a word he let him in. "Hi, how'd that charm work?" Ash asked.  
  
"We don't know yet."  
  
May looked around the corner. "Hi. pichu, made you?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
She walked up. "Pichu has to stop that."  
  
"Yeah. It never seems to want to be with only one of us...and it's your pokemon."  
  
"Well, it seems not to think that...come on, let's go into the living room."  
  
They walked into the living room. Mr.Oak looked up and smiled. "Hello."  
  
"Hi, Mr.Oak. Er, what happened to her?" Ash asked.  
  
"Fainted," Mr.Oak said.  
  
"When will she wake up?" he asked. Mr.Oak shrugged.  
  
"We have no clue."  
  
They had to wait one hour for her to come round.  
  
"What happened?" she asked.  
  
"Robert put a charm on you."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"Because of a problem you had."  
  
"Alright."  
  
` "Let's get you back to the hotel."  
  
Mr.Oak helped her up and said a quick thank you and they left.  
  
At the hotel, Mr. and Mrs. Oak went into their room as fast as possible. May and Ash were in their room playing with Pichu.  
  
"Why are we playing Hide-and-Go seek with Pichu?" Ash asked.  
  
"Because it wanted to," May said, "Found ya!"  
  
Pichu had been hiding behind her laptop, whose lid was up and Pichu was small enough to hide behind it. She picked it up.  
  
"Can we do some thing else now?" May asked. it nodded and jumped out of her grasp onto the bed. it curled up for a short nap, but said, "Pichu pi pichu pi pich pichu.\I'll take a nap and you can do what ever you are thinking of doing."  
  
They looked at each other, thunderstruck. "ok, that was not usual...any way, what do you want to do?" May said.  
  
"Let's see...we can't use the laptop because you said it was defragging, whatever that means...and we can't go talk with Rose because she's off sick...so why don't we just read or some thing?" Ash said. May smiled slightly.  
  
"I think I got a book or two..."  
  
She dug into her bag and found a red covered book at the bottom. All About Pokemon, it said on the cover in gold letters. She sat down on the bed, and flipped to the first chapter. "Oh, stop standing around like that! Get over here!" May said. Ash walked over sat down next her.  
  
She read out loud: As most people know, there are over 150 pokemon in the world. 251 known so far. Researchers are still looking for new pokemon that haven't been discovered yet.  
  
"There's alot of pokemon...251 known." Ash said. May nodded and read on. "'People called pokemon trainers go out to catch these pokemon. Others go out to compete in the pokemon league to become the  
  
pokemon master....or both.'"  
  
She leaned against Ash and continued: To become a pokemon master, you must beat the Elite Four and the resent pokemon master. The longest some one has been the master was one year.  
  
She read on through the book till the back. "Here there is a list of pokemon that they've discovered so far." May said. Ash nodded and looked over her shoulder at the list of pokemon.  
  
"I wonder if they'll find any new pokemon..." Ash said.  
  
"They might," May said, putting the book back in its place, "Now what do you want to do?"  
  
"I really don't know," Ash answered.  
  
"We could go swimming or some thing," May suggested. Ash shrugged.  
  
"I guess," Ash said, shrugging.  
  
"Ok, you get ready. I'll go tell Dad were we'll be..."May said. Ash nodded. She walked to the door and left.  
  
"Dad!" May yelled, knocking on the door. Mr. Oak opened the door.  
  
"What is it?" he asked.  
  
"Ash and me are going swimming."  
  
"Where? There's no place to go swimming that I've seen of..."  
  
"Yes there is! We found it. There's this corridor that leads from our room to Gary's and halfway down it another corridor branched off it. We went down that one and found a pool."  
  
"Well, alright, I guess...Hope you have fun."  
  
"ok, bye."  
  
"Bye."  
  
May walked back to their room and walked in. Ash was sitting on the bed, all ready, trying to catch Pichu. "Oh, look, you've made a new game- Catch The Pichu," she said.  
  
"Ha-ha." he said, taking another swipe at Pichu, but it was jumping out of the way, "I give up trying to catch this bolt of lightning, here."  
  
"Whatever," May said going through her bag once again. She was taking things out of it and setting them on the bed. After a moment of searching through the tangle of stuff, she had found what she had been looking for- her bathing suit.  
  
"Ok, let's get this stuff stuffed into here..." May said.  
  
"I'll do it. It's not like it's the hardest thing in the world to do." Ash said, "Just go get ready."  
  
While she was getting ready, she had a very uneasy feeling. She shook her self mentally and tryed to ignore it.  
  
When she was ready, she walked out. Her expression had most likely shown that she was worried about some thing, because when Ash looked up from putting one of her CDs in her bag, he suddenly frowned. "What's wrong?" he asked.  
  
"I don't know." May replied, "Let's go to the pool."  
  
They walked over to the door but then May stopped. "Pichu? Pikachus? We are going to leave the doors open ok?" The Pikachus nodded, but Pichu ran up to them and looked up. "Let me guess...your  
  
coming?"  
  
It nodded. She opened the door and it walked up to the door way. "Go on."  
  
It walked into the dark corridor and they tryed to keep up, but it was a very fast walker. When they had gotten to the pools edge, they saw Pichu at the other side looking over the edge. "Careful there, Pichu!" May called. It looked up in surprise and fell in. The bad part about it was...it couldn't swim. It struggled against the, was still water to stay surfaced.  
  
Ash looked at the struggling pichu and made a decision. He dove into the pool and didn't come up for air till half way to Pichu. The Pichu was still struggling, if more so. Ash dove back under and that time made it to  
  
Pichu. He took hold of Pichu and it stopped struggling to stay up. May dove into the water.  
  
"Where's Pichu?!" she called. She started over.  
  
"Right here!" Ash called back, lifting it up so she could see Pichu. She stopped swimming when she got to the center, out of breath because she had hurried. Ash swam up to her, Pichu on his head, afraid of the water now. May could only see his head and pichu looking around the place and back down at the water, afraid it's going to fall back in.  
  
"Here it is," he said, when he made it over to her. She hugged Pichu, who winced because water had just dripped into it's eyes.  
  
She looked up at Ash from Pichu, who was still wincing.  
  
"Thank you, Ash," she said. She hugged him.  
  
"It was no problem. Get Pichu over to the side of the pool."  
  
"Aren't you coming?"  
  
"I'll be there in a minute," he said.  
  
"Ok." she said, "Let's go Pichu."  
  
It jumped onto her head as she slid through the water. She looked back over her shoulder, Ash was taking deep breaths, as if he couldn't breath properly, but then slid under the surface of the water. May looked ahead of her and went the rest of the way to the side. Pichu jumped onto the solid ground and sat a little from the edge.  
  
"I wonder what Ash saw..." May said to herself. She was about to try and touch the bottom of the pool when Ash surfaced a little ways out. "Don't!" he yelled.  
  
May turned around to look at him. "Don't what?" she asked.  
  
"Try to hit the bottom. I just looked down there to find the floor of the pool...and I couldn't find it." he wheezed, now not shouting and out of under the water.  
  
"That's impossible...you mean to tell me there is no floor to this pool?" she asked.  
  
"Yes, I went as deep as I could till I needed to get to the surface for air." he said, finally gotten his breathing back to normal.  
  
"Ash, we have to get out of here." May said, "If there is no bottom to this, then there could be any thing down there..."  
  
"Yeah, I know...I'm postitive there's some thing down there." he said, keeping hold of the side of the pool.  
  
"How do you know?" May asked.  
  
"I heard some thing down there and it didn't sound too nice...like a growl or some thing." he said.  
  
"Alright. I got a idea." she said. Ash looked at her, puzzled. She shook her head and said, "We got to get out of the water before I put the plan to work. It involves electricity."  
  
Ash nodded and hopped out and took hold of Pichu. May climbed out and whistled. Penny came speeding in. It stood in front of May.  
  
"Thunder Bolt the water." she ordered. it nodded and did so. After the shock on the water had died down, she looked over the edge.  
  
"RUN!" she yelled, "PENNY! COME ON!"  
  
Ash tried to keep hold of Pichu, but mixing him being soaking wet and Pichu squirming, it had jumped out of his hands.  
  
"NO, PICHU! GET BACK HERE!" May yelled, running to catch up to Pichu. Pichu had ran up to the edge of the pool. Just as she grabbed pichu and turned around to get away from the pool, a dog-like creature had emerged.  
  
She turned to face it, but was backing away. It's fur was a bluish shade, she noticed, and if it was a pokemon, it must of been a water type.  
  
She kept backing away, til she had backed right into Ash who was standing, transfixed, near the doorway.  
  
"Why isn't it attacking?" May asked  
  
. "Don't know and don't want to know." Ash said, "Let's go."  
  
She nodded in agreement. He ran over to the door way, where Penny had stood ready to leave, but prepared to battle if the need came. May ran up next to him and looked back at the dog thing. It growled slightly, but did not budge. She went back into the corridors at a fast walk. Ash was behind her and Penny came up last, making sure it didn't follow them.  
  
"That was creepy," May said.  
  
"Creepy? You call that creepy? How about psycho? That-that thing just emerged from the pool!" Ash said.  
  
"Alright, Psycho it is then." she said, "I'm going to go get dressed...then try to get Pichu to stop hiding."  
  
Ash nodded. She gathered her cloths then walked into the bathroom and shut the door. Then it dawned on her. Before they had went to that pool she had that weird uneasy feeling, but since they got into their room, it was gone. She shook the thought off and got dressed, humming a small tune she had heard a few times, that she remembered.  
  
When she walked out, the first thing she did was look at the clock- 9:00 P.M!  
  
"Hey, Ash. Where'd you go?"  
  
"Down here!" he yelled. He was down on the floor, looking under the bed.  
  
"What in the world are you doing down there? It looks like you're looking for some thing." May said.  
  
"I am," he said, standing up.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Pikachu."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Pikachu!" he yelled, "My Pikachu!"  
  
"Oh, it probably wondered off some where," May said, "Go get dressed."  
  
Ash nodded and went into the bathroom, saying, "Sure, let's hope that's all Pikachu did." May sat down and saw that he had put his hat on the edge of the bed. It was about ready to fall off, so she grabbed it and set it on the table. After a minute Ash came back in the room.  
  
"Did you find Pichu?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah." May said, "It's over there."  
  
She pointed over to the desk, where Pichu sat on the chair. He looked at it before walking over and sitting down next to May. She hugged him tightly.  
  
"I'm tired. How about you?" she asked.  
  
"Yeah, I'm b-b-bushed," he said, attempting to stifle a yawn.  
  
"Then let's go to sleep," May said. Ash nodded in agreement. He laid back and May did the same.  
  
Ash hugged May. She smiled. "I love you, Ash," May said.  
  
"I love you, May," Ash said very softly. May smiled, again. They shut their eyes to go to sleep, for the next day they would be going back to Pallet Town on the plane.  
  
At 1 o'clock, Ash had woken up for some reason. He looked around the room. Nothing was there. Then out of the shadows a voice said, "Nice to see you again, Ash."  
  
He stifled a yell to keep from waking May and the pokemon up. He turned his head to see who had said that-Mr. Ketchum.  
  
"How did you find us here?" Ash asked. Mr. Ketchum walked to the end of the bed before answering.  
  
"I guessed."  
  
"Ok, but that's not even possible."  
  
"Oh, yes it is."  
  
"Ok how?"  
  
"Never mind. How are you?"  
  
"Fine."  
  
"Good. When are you going to be going back to Pallet Town? I'm just curious."  
  
"Today, in the after noon, I think."  
  
"Alright, listen, at 12 o'clock, meet me at the dead end of that secret path in the National Path. I'd like to talk to you two a bit before you have to go."  
  
"Ok."  
  
"Right. I ought to be going now..." Mr. Kechum said. He looked at Ash and smiled.  
  
"Isn't that a very weird position to be in during the night?" he asked. Ash looked at him.  
  
"Not really," Ash said.  
  
"Alright. Good night, Ash."  
  
Before Ash could say another word, Mr. Ketchum left. Ash stayed up a few more minutes, before drifting off to sleep. 


	13. The Last Day

- 13 -  
  
It was half past ten by the time they woke up. Ash looked at the clock and almost fainted.  
  
"We've got to get ready," he said.  
  
"For what? We don't have to leave for the flight until 3," May said, highly confused.  
  
"My dad wants to see us at 12," Ash said.  
  
"Ok, I guess." she said, "There's only one little problem."  
  
"What's that?" Ash inquired.  
  
"We've been in this hug all night and still are and you nor I can go get ready." she said.  
  
"Oh, yeah." Ash said, nodding. He let go. She climbed out of the bed and over to Pichu who was sitting near the desk.  
  
"Where's my bag, Pichu?" she asked. Pichu pointed to the desk, ran over and jumped onto the chair. May walked over and pulled the chair out. Her book bag was under the desk.  
  
She grabbed her clothes from it and went into the bathroom to get ready. Ash looked at Pichu, who was now running around at the bottom of the bed. It stopped eruptedly and walked up to him.  
  
Pichu curled up next to Ash, keeping it's eyes on him. He smiled slightly. At that moment, Gary came in.  
  
"Dad told me to give these to you," Gary said. He handed Ash two plane tickets.  
  
"Why does he want us to have them now? The plane isn't 'til this afternoon," Ash asked.  
  
"I don't know," Gary said, leaving. Ash frowned. He looked at the tickets in his hand. They had the flight number on them, with a few other things.  
  
May came out and asked, "What are those?"  
  
"Our plane tickets," he replied. She nodded and walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed.  
  
"Go get ready," May said. He shrugged and hopped off the bed. The tickets on the desk, Ash went and got ready to see his father. He thought of how he had never seen him for over nine years, how he never knew what he looked like or who he was like.  
  
He opened the door and walked over to the bed's end. "I'm ready," he said. May looked up.  
  
"Ok, let's go," she said. She got off the bed and got her book bag. "We might as well bring our stuff. Who knows how long we'll be out, and we might not have time to come here, get our stuff, and get on the plane before it takes off."  
  
Ash nodded and got his book bag from the side of the bed. They went down stairs and out the door. "Why don't we ride Red-Flame to the Park? She needs to get some exercise..." May suggested.  
  
Ash smiled. "Ok," he said. May took out the pokemon's poke ball and let it out. A Ponyta appeared in front of them. She hopped up onto the Ponyta and Ash got up on it behind her.  
  
"Ok, where in the park are we meeting him?" May asked.  
  
"That secret path. At the dead end," Ash said. May nodded.  
  
"Red-Flame, I want you to go at a gallop," she said. It whinnied in reply, but did not move.  
  
"Why won't it move?" Ash asked. May shrugged.  
  
"Don't know ," May said, "There's must be some thing wrong..." She jumped off and went in front of it.  
  
"What's the matter Red-Flame?" she coed. It whinnied again. It seemed to be talking to her in it's language. She climbed back up after a few minutes.  
  
"Okay, I found out what's up," she said.  
  
"What was it?" Ash asked.  
  
"Hang on," May said.  
  
"Huh?" Ash said, slightly puzzled.  
  
"You heard me." she said. Ash was stumped.  
  
"What do you mean with 'hang on'?" he asked.  
  
"I mean, Ponyta is afraid you are going to fall if it starts going into a gallop." she said.  
  
"Oh, now I know what you mean." Ash said. He grabbed her around the waist and said to Ponyta, "Gallop Red-Flame!"  
  
Ponyta whinnied and started to Gallop towards the park. People turned to look at Ponyta as it galloped through the city's streets, which was not a common sight.  
  
When they got to the separating fence, May asked, "Is it ok if I have Ponyta jump the fence?"  
  
"Yeah," Ash said.  
  
"Jump, the fence," May said. Ponyta sprang up into the air and over the fence. It ran along the path until they hit the dead end.  
  
"Come back Red-Flame," May said, returning it to it's poke ball after they had climbed down.  
  
"Have you ever thought of having Ponyta evolving?" Ash asked sitting down at the bottom of one of the tree's trunk.  
  
"No, not really," May said sitting down next to him. She shivered. "Is it just me or is it cold out here?"  
  
"It's not you because I'm freezing. Goldenrod must be having another cold streak..." Ash said.  
  
May opened her book bag and started going through it. She pulled a blanket out if it and shut it. May took the blanket and wrapped it around herself and Ash.  
  
"How much longer until he gets here?" May asked.  
  
"Thirty minutes," Ash said. May looked into the trees. After a few minutes of looking at trees, she looked at Ash.  
  
He smiled slightly. "Well, at least it looks nice out here," he said.  
  
May nodded. "I wish it would feel nice out here," she said gloomily. Ash nodded in agreement.  
  
"I'm sure it'll get nicer," Ash said. May was about to reply, but Ash kissed her before she could say a word. They held it for a few minutes, then went into another. That's what they did until 12 o'clock.  
  
They didn't hear some one walking towards them and stand a few inches from them. "Hello," the man that had walked up said. It was Mr. Ketchum.  
  
They broke apart and looked at Mr. Ketchum. He was smiling.  
  
"How are you two doing?" Mr. Ketchum asked.  
  
"Good," they said.  
  
"Ash, how is your mom doing? She well?" Mr. Ketchum asked.  
  
"She was doing ok when we left for this trip..." Ash said.  
  
"Wonderful. Would you tell her I said hi?" Mr. Ketchum asked.  
  
"Ok," Ash replied.  
  
"May! How's that Pichu?!" Mr. Ketchum yelled.  
  
"Pichu's doing pretty good." May said.  
  
"Where is Pichu, May?" Ash asked.  
  
"I had told Penny to take Pichu and stay with Mom and Dad. I'd say your pikachu went with," May said. Mr. Ketchum was looking at them.  
  
"Um, what's going on in Pallet Town?" Mr. Ketchum asked.  
  
"Nothing really," May said.  
  
"Oh, um, I caught a new pokemon yesterday!" he yelled.  
  
"Which one?" Ash asked.  
  
"A Marill!" Mr. Ketchum said.  
  
"Aren't those a little rare?" May asked. Mr. Ketchum nodded.  
  
"Oh yes. Is it really cold out here, because if it is, I haven't noticed..." he said. In answer, they nodded. Mr. Ketchum frowned.  
  
"Ok, I guess I really haven't noticed...anyway, tell me, how did your pokemon training go, Ash.  
  
"Let's see...in the Indigo league, I lost some time in there, then in the Orange Island League, I won against the four gyms and the league, and then in the Johto league I made it threw that one. I'm going to try again in the regular league some time...oh, and I had a Butterfree and I let it go, and a primate and I gave it to another trainer after it won in the p-1 grandpre. I right now have, in all, a Bulbasaur, Charizard, Squirtle, Pikachu, Muk, Taros, Beedrill, Pidgeot, Cynaquil, Chikorita, Tododile, Herocross, Sudowoodo..."  
  
"Sounds like you had a nice journey there," Mr. Ketchum said. Ash didn't say any thing.  
  
They talked about all sorts of things-like pokemon-until 2:30.  
  
"Ash we have to get to the airport. It's almost 3 o'clock! We don't want to miss the plane!" she told Ash. He nodded.  
  
"Put this blanket away and we can go to the airport. She nodded and let it go. The blanket fell limply to the ground. Ash stood up and walked over to Mr. Ketchum.  
  
"We have to get to the airport so we don't miss the plane," Ash said. He looked over this shoulder. May was folding up the blanket and puting it away, then stood up and walked over to them.  
  
"I'll go with you, " Mr. Ketchum said. May and Ash nodded. The group went down the path to the break. They climbed through it and went out of the park.  
  
When they made it to the airport, Mr Ketchum turned to look at them.  
  
"I got a question for you May."  
  
"What is it, Mr. Ketchum?"  
  
He said some thing to her that made her blush scarlet. She nodded. Mr. Ketchum then said, "Guess what side of the family gave him that ."  
  
She shrugged. Mr. Ketchum then said smugly, "My side of the family. I'll see you two some other time."  
  
He walked away. They looked around for Mr. and Mrs. Oak and soon found them-they were at the gate to their plane.  
  
"There you two are! Come on! We have to get on the plane!" Mr. Oak cried. He hurried them onto the plane and down to their seats. They sat down and listened to the captain (again) announce the take off. Ash turned to look at May.  
  
"What did he ask you?" Ash asked. She giggled.  
  
"Oh, it's quite funny...he asked...he asked if you were a good kisser!" she said.  
  
"Can I bet that nod you gave him was a 'yes?'" Ash asked. She nodded. He blushed.  
  
"I can't believe he asked you that about me!" Ash said, a little too loudly. Gary looked at them.  
  
"Huh?" he asked.  
  
"NOTHING! NOTHING AT ALL!" they said quickly. He shrugged and went back to looking at a book in his hand.  
  
They sighed in relief that he hadn't known what they were saying and went back to talking until they made it back to Pallet Town. 


End file.
